Hue; Incense Village, Walk, Home meal

After visiting the Royal Tomb of Tu Duc, it is a short drive to the Thuy Xuan Incense Village; this provided incense for the ancient dynasties in the Hue Imperial Palace, and is now a major tourist attraction. There are many shops selling "joss sticks" and showing how they are made, as well as many other items.

After a delicious vegan lunch at a nearby monastery, our minibus takes us back to the hotel in Hue. We have some time to kill, so Helen and I go for a short walk along the Perfume River and then double back through part of the city to the hotel; the area is interesting as it is the hospital and medical part of Hue.

During the Covid-19 lockdown, our tour guide, Quang, and his cousin set up a coffee shop close to where his family and relatives live in the western area of the Citadel. His cousin runs it now, and we visit for an afternoon coffee; we had salt coffee, a local speciality - excellent. Then we walked a few houses down to where Quang's aunt and uncle live; it was originally his grandparents's house, and there is a family shrine on entering (this is unusual nowadays in Vietnam, as times change). We had an amazing 5 course home-prepared, market-sourced meal prepared by Quang's aunt on limited cooking facilities, so all courses follow on quickly - we are very a very fortunate group.

Then, it's back home by minibus in the rain - what a day!Read more